Tree data structure in C#

Question

I was looking for a tree or graph data structure in C# but I guess there isn't one provided. An Extensive Examination of Data Structures Using C# 2.0 explains a bit about why. Is there a convenient library which is commonly used to provide this functionality? Perhaps through a strategy pattern to solve the issues presented in the article.

I feel a bit silly implementing my own tree, just as I would implementing my own ArrayList.

I just want a generic tree which can be unbalanced. Think of a directory tree. C5 looks nifty, but their tree structures seem to be implemented as balanced red-black trees better suited to search than representing a hierarchy of nodes.

Answer 1

If you are going to display this tree on the GUI, you can use TreeView and TreeNode. (I suppose technically you can create a TreeNode without putting it on a GUI, but it does have more overhead than a simple homegrown TreeNode implementation.)

Answer 2

If you would like to write your own, you can start with this six-part document detailing effective usage of C# 2.0 data structures and how to go about analyzing your implementation of data structures in C#. Each article has examples and an installer with samples you can follow along with.

“An Extensive Examination of Data Structures Using C# 2.0” by Scott Mitchell

Answer 3

I've completed the code that @Berezh has shared.

  public class TreeNode<T> : IEnumerable<TreeNode<T>>
    {

        public T Data { get; set; }
        public TreeNode<T> Parent { get; set; }
        public ICollection<TreeNode<T>> Children { get; set; }

        public TreeNode(T data)
        {
            this.Data = data;
            this.Children = new LinkedList<TreeNode<T>>();
        }

        public TreeNode<T> AddChild(T child)
        {
            TreeNode<T> childNode = new TreeNode<T>(child) { Parent = this };
            this.Children.Add(childNode);
            return childNode;
        }

        public IEnumerator<TreeNode<T>> GetEnumerator()
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
        {
            return (IEnumerator)GetEnumerator();
        }
    }
    public class TreeNodeEnum<T> : IEnumerator<TreeNode<T>>
    {

        int position = -1;
        public List<TreeNode<T>> Nodes { get; set; }

        public TreeNode<T> Current
        {
            get
            {
                try
                {
                    return Nodes[position];
                }
                catch (IndexOutOfRangeException)
                {
                    throw new InvalidOperationException();
                }
            }
        }


        object IEnumerator.Current
        {
            get
            {
                return Current;
            }
        }


        public TreeNodeEnum(List<TreeNode<T>> nodes)
        {
            Nodes = nodes;
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
        }

        public bool MoveNext()
        {
            position++;
            return (position < Nodes.Count);
        }

        public void Reset()
        {
            position = -1;
        }
    }

Answer 4

The generally excellent C5 Generic Collection Library has several different tree-based data structures, including sets, bags and dictionaries. Source code is available if you want to study their implementation details. (I have used C5 collections in production code with good results, although I haven't used any of the tree structures specifically.)

Answer 5

Try this simple sample.

public class TreeNode<TValue>
{
    #region Properties
    public TValue Value { get; set; }
    public List<TreeNode<TValue>> Children { get; private set; }
    public bool HasChild { get { return Children.Any(); } }
    #endregion
    #region Constructor
    public TreeNode()
    {
        this.Children = new List<TreeNode<TValue>>();
    }
    public TreeNode(TValue value)
        : this()
    {
        this.Value = value;
    }
    #endregion
    #region Methods
    public void AddChild(TreeNode<TValue> treeNode)
    {
        Children.Add(treeNode);
    }
    public void AddChild(TValue value)
    {
        var treeNode = new TreeNode<TValue>(value);
        AddChild(treeNode);
    }
    #endregion
}

Answer 6

Most trees are formed by the data you are processing.

Say you have a person class that includes details of someone’s parents, would you rather have the tree structure as part of your “domain class”, or use a separate tree class that contained links to your person objects? Think about a simple operation like getting all the grandchildren of a person, should this code be in the person class, or should the user of the person class have to know about a separate tree class?

Another example is a parse tree in a compiler…

What both of these examples show is that the concept of a tree is part of the domain of the data and using a separate general purpose tree at least doubles the number of objects that are created as well as making the API harder to program again.

What we want is a way to reuse the standard tree operations, without having to re-implement them for all trees, while at the same time, not having to use a standard tree class. Boost has tried to solve this type of problem for C++, but I yet to see any effect for .NET get adapted.